OT Activity of the Day:
Hand Octopus
Target Age Range: 2 and up
This craft can be scaled up or down depending on your child's abilities and age. All I did was trace my hand with a crayon, cut out the hand and glue it upside down on another piece of paper. I added an underwater backdrop to create an octopus swimming in the ocean! It's a fun way to work on cutting, coloring, gluing and tracing. Here are all the ways this activity can be completed:
1. For the younger kids, you can help them trace their hand and cut it out. With the younger kids, you can place more emphasis on drawing the underwater theme and even practice those prewriting strokes: circles for bubbles, lines (horizontal and vertical) for the sand or seaweed, even a cross for an anchor and square or triangle for a boat or submarine.
2. For older kids, you can work on bilateral coordination by having them trace their own hand on a piece of paper and then cut it out. You can even have your child write a sentence or two about their underwater picture or maybe what the octopus is thinking.
Of course you can always add your own spin on this activity, the idea is to have those little hands using crayons, scissors, and glue!
Enjoy!